Russian Ham Salad (Olivier)

Introduction

Olivier is simply a Russian Ham salad with chopped vegetables, diced ham or bologna, and diced hard boiled egg.

I actually have a personal story to share about my first experience easting olivier. As many of you know, I am married to a Russian woman and our dating prior to marriage definitely not the norm. Her and I met on an online dating sight, and after a few months we became very close. Over time of talking, we decided that we should meet in person. Originally she was going to come to the USA to work and live as an au pair (nanny), but that fell through. I made the decision that I would save up some money and visit her in Russia instead. I was able to quickly save up the money and a few months later, I found myself on a 12 hours flight from Los Angeles CA to Moscow Russia. It was a long and exhausting flight, and this was before seat back TVs became the norm. Once I arrived to Moscow and landed in the middle of a severe snow storm, I found myself at passport control in a really long line. I had only 2 hours until my next flight. It took over an hour to get out of passport control and back then you had to go to the domestic terminal, which was on the opposite side of the runways. You could either take a bus or taxi. By the time I arrived at the other terminal, I had another long security line, and by the time I made it to my gate, the plane had already left the gate. Thankfully they booked me on the next flight without much event, but it wasn’t for another 6 hours. I sat in the terminal for a long time nodding on and off between sleep and being awake. For a significant time I was the only traveler in the terminal.

I started to feel hungry, and then very hungry. They did have a small cafeteria style restaurant there in the terminal, but I was hesitant to get something there. Most workers in the domestic terminal didn’t speak a word of English, unlike the international terminal where everyone spoke English. I began to get hungrier and hungrier, so I gave in and went into the restaurant. The young lady there greeted me with a smile probably knowing that I didn’t speak any Russian and I simply pointed to the dish that looked most appetizing at that time. This dish so happened to be Olivier. Because I was so hungry at the time, this Russian ham salad tasted really good, I gobbled it up fast and kept telling myself how delicious and tasty this dish was. That is how I got interested in this salad and began making it myself over the many years since. It is one of my favorite Russian dishes.

You should try making it too, it’s not difficult, although it can be time consuming with boiling potatoes, carrots, and egg, but whatever time it takes, it is worth it.

Ingredients

• 3 medium size carrots boiled, skinned, and diced
• 5 boiled medium size potatoes diced
• 2 boiled eggs diced
• 3/4 of an English Cucumber diced
• 3 dill pickles diced
• 1 lb pre-cooked ham steak diced
• 1 medium onion diced
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup mayo (additional as needed)
• sea salt to taste
• 1 to 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill to taste

Instructions

1. Skin the carrots, but do not chop yet, except in half to fit in pot for boiling
2. Boil carrots and potatoes for 30 minutes, and boil eggs for 20 minutes
3. Dice English Cucumber, pickles, onion, ham, and place all into salad bowl
4. Peel shell off boiled eggs and dice eggs
5. Dice cooked carrots
6. Skin and dice cooked potatoes
7. Add eggs, carrots, and potatoes to the same salad bowl, toss well
8. In a separate bowl, mix sour cream and mayo together well
9. Add sour cream/mayo mix to salad, toss together well
10. Add chopped dill to salad
11. Add sea salt to taste and toss some more

Enjoy!

Tip: You can turn this into a soup called “summer soup” by adding a few drops of vinegar and water to the salad. It’s a cold soup, hence a summer soup!